


My First Art (Looks A Lot Like You)

by r0tkappchen



Series: Above and Under [6]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-08
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-03-02 04:41:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13310775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/r0tkappchen/pseuds/r0tkappchen
Summary: Jongin learns new words and finds new discoveries.





	My First Art (Looks A Lot Like You)

“Use the scissors with care, alright?” Baekhyun says aloud as he bends down to hand yet another pair of the stationery to Yixing, earning himself a collective 'neh!' from around the room. The kindergarten teacher gives a satisfied smile and reminds the kids once again to be careful and have fun before he disappears out of the room, heading towards the kitchen where he has promised Jongdae to help with the cookies.

 

Amidst the crowd of children tinkering away with their own pieces of art, Jongin finds himself staring dumbly at the green pair of scissors lying atop the messy stack of papers on his desk along with the few crayons that had survived Sehun's clutches (everything snaps into two in that kid's hands). All the other boys and girls have long since started to work on whatever it is that came across their mind, ecstatic that their art teacher had decided to let them unleash their 'hidden talents' today – whatever that is – and, honestly, Jongin's a tad bit envious that he has no idea what he's going to whip up. Jongin pouts, momentarily fearing that Sehun's nasty joke about him having an empty brain is actually true.

 

He looks around to gain inspiration, or so his daddy does whenever he decides to write, and he observes in awe how Luhan beside him pastes the tiny coloured papers he's cut into confetti onto a drawing of something Jongin assumes is a cat. Jongin has never seen anything like it, but he has to admit that despite some messes the elder has made here and there, it's quite pretty.

 

Curiosity fuels him to nudge the other softly. “Luhannie,” he asks, “Why do that? Why Luhannie didn't draw kitty on coloured paper?”

 

“My hyung taught me this, he calls it 'collage'!”

 

“Ah,” Jongin nods fervently, imprinting the new word in mind and silently mouthing it to feel how it rolls off his tongue.

 

“Oh, and Jonginnie,” Luhan says without pausing his work, smacking a pink piece of paper onto kitty's triangular nose, “it's a tiger, not a kitty.”

 

Jongin furrows his eyebrows because he doesn't see the logic in this. “But tiger is kitty too.”

 

“No, no, Jonginnie. Kitty goes like this,” Luhan makes small meowing noises that perked up several heads, then turns to face his friend, “but a tiger goes ROAAARRR!!!”

 

The younger jumps in his stool and his eyes widens in shock. Luhan giggles and goes back to his work.

 

Jonngin gives Luhan the stink-eye and scoots his chair away from the elder.

 

He looks around again and stops short on Chanyeol sitting across from him on the other side of the desk, colouring vigorously onto his paper. His hand is moving so fast Jongin thinks that it blurs. “Channie, lemme see!”

 

“But I'm not done yet,” Chanyeol whines, kicking his legs.

 

“I wanna see! Pretty please, cherry on top?”

 

Chanyeol grumbles, “Channie doesn't like cherries.”

 

“I have pokemon cards in my bag.”

 

The other boy's eyes twitched and Jongin knows it's a matter of time before he gives in, which turns out not a minute after when Chanyeol hesitantly slides the paper he's been working on across the table. Jongin's expectant smile is blinding when he grasps it and holds it up vertically in front of his face.

 

His face sours. “Channie drew..” he scrunches his face, “trees?”

 

“Trees!” Chanyeol exclaims, offended. “No, Jonginnie. See, that's Channie, Da, Ma, and..a-and—”

 

“Baekkie-hyung?”

 

The rapid reddening of Chanyeol's ears is a sight to behold. Jongin laughs, it's easy to figure out really, because out of all the kids here Chanyeol is noticably the clingiest when it comes to their cheery teacher and caretaker.

 

He saves the other boy from further embarrassment as he hands back the paper. Jongin has no time to tease him because he's still on a mission to finding ideas. He diverts his attention to the boy sitting next to Chanyeol, which just happens to be Sehun.

 

Jongin watches as Sehun switches the pencil in his hand with a stamp-on, of which he presses onto the ink case before smacking it onto the paper in front of him. Then he takes the pencil back in his hand and scribbles something on the very same sheet.

 

“Sehuna, what are you doing?”

 

“I,” he pauses to stamp onto the paper again, “am practicing for when I grow up.”

 

“Practicing?”

 

Sehun lifts the paper in his hands, facing the front towards Jongin so that he could see his work – which consists of numerous incomprehensible worm-like scribbles and multiple stamps of a smiley face and stars. “You see, the famous grown-ups on TV, they like to do this,” Sehun makes another scribble, ending it with a whoosh. “On papers and people take it. Noona said people like it because they are idols.”

 

“Idols?” Jongin repeats. He's learning a lot today.

 

Sehun nods seriously. “Noona said idols are handsome and famous and get to wear handsome clothes. I'm going to be an idol when I grow up.”

 

“Oh!” Jongin says, amazed at Sehun's new-found ambition. “That's nice! Idols like to use stamps too?”

 

“No. Daddy do this a lot when he's working in his office room. Daddy said he's making money, so if I can be good at this then I can make money too.”

 

Sehun resumes his practice and Jongin looks on for a few seconds more, his mouth shaped and 'o'. Sehun's so mature, he thinks.

 

Jongin turns to the person on his left last and is greeted with the sight of Kyungsoo puffing his chubby cheeks out, a sign that he's into his work. He leans closer to sneak a peek and sees stubby little fingers drawing on a piece of folded paper with a crayon.

 

“Soo, Soo is drawing too? Like Channie?”

 

Kyungsoo turns his buggy eyes to the younger, twinkling, “Soo is making a card!”

 

Wow, Jongin thinks, he's never seen anyone make a card before. The ones he's seen or get or give to people are usually bought. And cards had always make him happy, because the pictures are cool and mommy once said that when people give you cards for whatever occasion it is, it means they're wishing you well. His insides bubble with excitement at the prospect of his hyung making something so pretty himself.

 

“Whoa!” he says, “Are you giving it to someone?”

 

“Uh-huh. But I can't tell you,” Kyungsoo lowers his voice to a whisper, eyes darting around, “it's a secret.”

 

A somewhat heavy feeling settles in the pits of his tummy – he's kind of sad that Kyungsoo doesn't want to tell him, because he thought they were best friends and he's always shared everything with the other. He wants to throw a tantrum right then and there, he wants to know who's the special person, but decides against it because mommy always reminds him that he's a good boy if he doesn't yell – and good boys get fried chicken.

 

He has nothing in his bag to offer Kyungsoo to get him to open up to him, so he turns the wheels in his head. Maybe, just maybe, if he helps Kyungsoo, Kyungsoo will realise how much of a good boy he is and how great of a friend he is and he'll share his secret. “Soo, can Jonginnie help?”

 

“No, Jonginnie, this is special! Like, _really_ special.”

 

“Please!” Jongin laces his fingers together, “Jonginnie wanna help!”

 

Kyungsoo fidgets in his seat, short, thick eyebrows furrowed as he cotemplates. He lets out a big puff of air. “Fine. You can make the envelope.”

 

“En-vuh-lup..?”

 

Kyungsoo struggles to find the best word to describe an envelope. “The..the coat? Like when Jonginnie buys chocolate and Jonginnie has to open the wrapping ?”

 

Jongin lights up like a bulb at the realization and bounces on his seat. “I know, I know! Noona made it once!”

 

“Great!”

 

Excited that he now has something to do, he turns back to the stationery in front of him. He wracks his brain for what to do first, and giddily praises himself when he remembers the first step. Yellow seems like a good colour – it's bright and makes him happy and it reminds him of the sun – so he takes a piece of the coloured paper and folds in the vertices one by one. It's kind of messy, they didn't exactly meet at the center, but they overlap anyway and Jongin thinks it's good enough.

 

He wants to use the blue glitter glue but he can't find it anywhere, so he grabs the ironman-printed tape instead and cut off a strip, attaching three of the folds and leaves one of the flaps open. He turns the envelope around so the front faces him, and sees how blank and barren it is – a few decorations won't hurt.

 

Kyungsoo has already drawn in the card so he should do something different. Maybe he should do something like Luhan? But in a different way? There's many extra coloured papers littering around..

 

Jongin grabs the green pair of scissors and a piece of blue paper. _Snip snip snip_. _Yes!_

 

The young boy grins at his masterpiece.

 

“Pretty flower, Jonginnie.”

 

“Soo it's a star.”

 

“Oh.”

 

Jongin pouts. He'll do better for the next one.

 

Since Kyungsoo is going to give this to this really special person, what other shape is better at portraying love?

 

Jongin grabs a piece of pink manila and cuts out a big, fat heart.

 

It looks better, distinctive, and he holds up the heart in victory, a large, gummy smile on his face, praising himself for his hard work. Kyungsoo will approve of it, he's sure. So Jongin whips around towards Kyungsoo with the heart held in front of him.

 

Alert at the sudden movement from beside him, Kyungsoo turns around as well.

 

Jongin gasped.

 

He looks at the piece of paper in his hand, then at Kyungsoo, then at the paper again, all with eyes so wide and unblinking and mouth agape. Kyungsoo thinks he looks like his pet goldfish.

 

“Jonginnie, what—”

 

Jongin smacks the pink paper heart in his little hand right onto Kyungsoo's mouth.

 

“I-It's—” Jongin stumbles out loud, “It's the same!!”

 

Collage. Idol. En-vuh-lup. Jongin learnt a lot today.

 

And he also learns, on this eventful day, that Kyungsoo's lips are the shape of a heart.

 

*

 

Jongin comes trotting the next day to school with an extra skip in his steps, since mommy packed him fried chickens for being such a good boy at school for helping his classmate.

 

He enters his class humming, and it's when he comes around to his desk that he finds a familiar yellow envelope, and an even familiar heart pasted on the front.

 

There's stubby, messy writing too, and he has to squint his eyes to spell out the words one by one – although he thinks there's a mistake – but when he finishes he feels a smile tug at the corner of his lips and his heart swells so big it felt like it might burst out of his chest.

 

 

From: Soo

To: Jogginnie, the bestest of the bestest in the ~~hole~~ whole wide world

 

 

(There's an even, _even_ familiar worm-like scribble and stamp at the corner of the envelope but Jongin ignores it because he only sees pink lips and heart-shaped smiles.)

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> ♡


End file.
